Top Tech Stories This Week

Petter Neby, founder and CEO of the Swiss design-led company, told The Register Punkt’s second device is coming to market this year with an unusual USP – security hardening by BlackBerry. Just don’t call it a “dumb phone”.

Sweetgreen Inc. wants to win its customers’ loyalty by getting to know a lot more about them. The Culver City, Calif.-based salad chain believes using a mobile app to gather data on guests’ allergies and tastes will allow it to suggest dishes that regulars at its 88 restaurants are sure to love.

According to PwC Canada, the city raised more venture capital money than any other in the country in 2017, with US$800 million (£616m) invested across 63 major deals. Attracted by its reputation for ground breaking AI research, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have invested heavily in the city’s academic and entrepreneurial communities in recent years.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has contacted the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), requesting cooperation from the trade group and its members in a criminal investigation into US media buying practices.

Rising inflation and interest rates as well as a move by the Fed to tighten policy led to Tech stocks taking a dive. Wall Street experts noted, as interest rates rise, many big money movers are making big money moves and taking money out of the stock market to invest in more secure bonds with guaranteed rates of return.

Amazon’s machine-learning specialists uncovered a big problem: their new recruiting engine did not like women. Some 55% of US human resources managers said artificial intelligence, or AI, would be a regular part of their work within the next five years, according to a 2017 survey by talent software firm CareerBuilder.